The Whooper Swan (Cygnus cygnus) is a large Northern Hemisphere swan.

It is a pure white, wild swan that features in Finnish folklore and culture, from the Kalevala folk epic to the works of composer Jean Sibelius. During the early 20th century the numbers of whooper swans in the wild declined steeply, until by the 1950s fewer than twenty pairs bred in Finland. 

The swans have since recovered after being successfully spotlighted as a figurehead species for Finland’s nascent nature conservation movement; and today Finland is home to about 6,000 whoopers. Many products in Finland’s stores bear a flying swan logo from a Nordic environmental labelling scheme, or a swimming swan logo signifying food produced in Finland.